My sister and her husband started small college funds when each of my kids was born. They don’t have children and they had the money for this. My parents also contributed when the kids were born as well. I realize we are quite lucky for this. Other then that H and I put as much as we could in our kid’s college fund each year. Yes, that meant that maybe we took fewer vacations, drove older cars, lived in a smaller car, etc…but we were able to pay for college for both kids. Maybe not full freight at a private college, but 4 years for both kids at state schools is pretty good. That said, we only had our kids apply to schools we could afford to pay for comfortable. We also encouraged our kids to seek out schools that gave good merit aid. Our kids both got some scholarships as well. I realize we come from a place of privilege. As for creating more income to pay for college: maybe take second job if you can? Any extra money you get, use for college?